by Alice Buckley

April 19, 2022

We had the chance to interview Jennifer Smith, Senior RevOps Consultant at Cattle Dog Digital. In this post, we dive into Jen’s background and journey in joining the Cattle Dog Digital team. 

The Move from Education to Business

At university, initially Jen studied a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology and Film & Television Studies. She later went back to school and earned a post grad in Education to fulfill her aspirations of becoming a highschool teacher. Jen ended up doing emergency teaching at her old high school, filling in for other teachers when they are off sick, or on leave. Jen expresses that she enjoyed teaching, however she looked at her future and had the ambition to expand her world beyond working at her old high school. 

Jen searched for a role in a company that she felt as a customer had good values. Jen took a role in JB Hi-Fi’s Insurance customer service team. In a short period of time, Jen was promoted to 2IC and then later to Supervisor. During this time, Jen developed a pricing tool, which led to a role as a Pricing Analyst. Jen says this is when a switch was flicked where she realised what she enjoyed; using knowledge of programs and systems to come up with an outcome that improves the business. Jen was eager to tackle more challenges to help the business in the Pricing and Analysis space, but a lack of a formal qualification hindered her opportunities. So, Jen completed a masters in Professional Accounting, and moved into the Commercial team where she was given the opportunity to lead a huge project implementing FinancialForce,  combining her love of systems and accounting degree.

During the FinancialForce implementation project at JB Hi-Fi, Jen met Linda Godfrey (currently, Cattle Dog Digital’s Director of RevOps), who came on board to help with project management. In their roles at JB Hi-Fi, Jen and Linda first started working with Cattle Dog Digital when they were engaged to help clean up the years of old code embedded in the system. Jen became the Commercial Operations Manager as a result of her work on the project, and developed a talent of understanding the business’s requirements and bending the systems to find solutions. 

New to the Cattle Dog Digital Pack  

When the time came to explore a new challenge, Jen reached out to have a discussion about the role of a Consultant at Cattle Dog Digital where Sharky gave good insight. At the end of the phone call Sarah offered a job and Jen, “couldn’t say no.” For Jen, it was difficult to make the move, as she had been at JB Hi-Fi for 12 years. 

The transition to Cattle Dog Digital was seamless given that Jen had worked with CDD for 3 years already. Jen says she made a strong and confident decision stating, “It was a safe place to land. I knew the culture and the values”. As well, Jen says the operations of the company are a lot calmer and less stressful. 

“My biggest thing is working with a company that has integrity…”

-Jennifer Smith, RevOps Consultant, Cattle Dog Digital

The Importance of Integrity 

“My biggest thing is working with a company that has integrity – they mean what they say. So it was a no-brainer taking the offer with Cattle Dog Digital as I know their integrity,” Jen shared. During her time at JB Hi-Fi working with Cattle Dog Digital, it was never about making more money for CDD or delivering the project then moving on, it was about the partnership with JB Hi-Fi. Jen completely aligns with that way of working with longer term values and genuine ongoing engagement.

Role and Aspirations

Ultimately, Jen is in charge of unifying the entire channel for a customer from the first touch with a lead, to renewing the contract. Jen aims to attain a tight operational process, where every customer has access to data to deliver more value for their business. Jen is looking forward to gaining exposure to different businesses and how they work and developing skills further than just Salesforce and FinancialForce. In gaining experience in diverse systems, Jen hopes to develop her professional profile. 

Favourite Dog: Mini Schnauzer 

Jen’s favourite dog is a miniature schnauzer! She shared that she likes them as, “they have a lovely temperament.”